test-drb December 2003

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

252 participants
453 discussions

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, has anyone got any data on the UM8297 floppy disk controller IC? I found one on a tiny ISA board in the loft the other day (labelled "FDC-III"). I was hoping it might provide a little more flexibility in reading non-PC floppies on a PC machine (specifically Acorn BBC - none of the spare PC motherboards I have kicking around happen to have floppy controller ICs that do this) Using the ISA board in a PC with the on-board floppy disk controller disabled, the drives seek on startup as expected but I can't get any data from floppies put into them (known-good MSDOS-format disks, known-good drives, and a known-good data cable). Tried using both DOS and Linux. A few thoughts: 1) The controller IC might be broken; I don't know its history. The fact that it's doing a seek on startup makes me think it's at least semi-alive though. 2) The motherboard fdc IC might somehow get in the way for data transfers, despite being disabled in the BIOS (bad design if so!) 3) The chip might need some specific setup from DOS before it'll work correctly. 4) The chip might be expecting a specific floppy drive type or types to be attached, or set up in a certain way. I've only tried known-good high density 5.25" and 3.5" drives so far. 5) Maybe the IC doesn't emulate any kind of standard PC floppy controller chip, and needs a whole complex driver to function. Yuck. I'm hoping on 3) or 4) at the moment, with 3) being more useful to me! If I fit a 5.25" drive say, and set it up as a 3.5" drive in the motherboard BIOS, then the system halts on startup with a floppy disk failure as expected - so it does look like the BIOS is trying to talk to the ISA board with the IC on it and knows that it's there. There's very little on the ISA board itself - the IC itself, a pair of 7406 chips, and some clock circuitry. No configuration on the board whatsoever. As I say, maybe the board isn't strictly DOS-compatible without a driver, or designed to do some oddball task. cheers Jules (waiting for hangover to go and eyes to start working correctly...)

22 years, 1 month

DECtape

by aek＠spies.com

I was cleaning my office as I prepare to retire, and found several DECtapes with programs I wrote for a PDP-9 in the mid 70's. I have no listings available, but would like to read these programs if possible. -- I have a working DECtape system that can read these. I'm located in Silicon Valley.

22 years, 1 month

WD179x Question

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 26, 0:19, tim lindner wrote: > In the data sheet, under the section "1. Non-IBM Formats" it says: > > "Note that the Index Mark is not required by the 179X." > > What does this mean exactly? How can a track contain any useful > imformation without a Index Mark? The Index Mark is a single small block of data recorded on the disk, that occurs once per track, right after the index hole; it's NOT the index pulse from the hardware, and NOT a sector header and it is optional. Lots of controllers don't put it there unless told to. Given that any sensible controller will see the index pulse from the drive interface, the Index Mark pattern is unneccessary -- but some controllers do expect to see it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

22 years, 1 month

Any one else have a copy of FUSE

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Back in October of 1998 there was a new video game magazine called fuse that was shipped on VHS tapes and was billed as "The Video Game Magazine of the Future". I just found "Issue 1 Volume 1 Nov/Dec 1998" over in my bus but it was missing a bonus promotional copy of fuse in the box. Does anyone have this bonus issue? I did a google and could not find anything on the magazine I guess they didn't last very long.

22 years, 1 month

Inmos TRAM numbers

by rmeenaks＠olf.com

Hi, I am now working on completing the list of TRAMs that inmos produced (similar to my previous post on motherboards). Here is what I currently have: IMSB401 - 32-bit transputer 32KBytes Size-1 IMSB404 - 32-bit transputer 2Mbytes Size-2 IMSB405 - 32-bit transputer 8Mbytes Size-8 IMSB407 - Ethernet TRAM Size-8 IMSB408 - Frame store TRAM Size-8 IMSB409 - Display TRAM Size-8 IMSB410 - 32-bit transputer 160Kbytes Size-2 IMSB411 - 32-bit transputer 1Mbyte Size-1 IMSB415 - Differential link buffer TRAM Size-1 IMSB416 - 16-bit transputer 64Kbytes Size-1 IMSB417 - 32-bit transputer 4Mbytes Size-4 IMSB418 - Flash ROM TRAM Size-2 IMSB419 - Integrated graphics TRAM Size-6 IMSB420 - Vector processing TRAM Size-4 IMSB421 - IEEE 488 GPIB TRAM Size-4 IMSB422 - SCSI TRAM Size-2 IMSB426 - 32-bit transputer 4Mbytes Size-1 IMSB427 - 32-bit transputer 8Mbytes Size-2 IMSB428 - 32-bit transputer 2Mbytes Size-2 IMSB429 - Video Image Processing TRAM Size-6 IMSB430 - Prototyping TRAM Size-4 IMSB431 - Ethernet TRAM Size-2

22 years, 1 month

Docs for Heath ID-5001 "Advanced Weather Computer"?

by dickset＠amanda.spole.gov

I've just run across a partially-working Heath ID-5001 and am trying to get it do something useful. At the very least, the flourescent bulb PSU is out (the TIP41 gets *really* hot in a couple of minutes), and the front bezel has some cracks. The rest of the unit looks fine, though. With the top off, and room light shining in, it's possible to read the display. I can set the baud rate and the date/time from the front panel, but not much else. I've already run across an LED back-light scheme, so in the long-run, I can fix that. I've also seen a page on how to manufacture temperature sensors with non-obsolete parts. I could really use some docs on how to calibrate the unit (there are several pots on the CPU board), and how the other sensors work. Anyone on the list have one of these? -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 27-Dec-2003 20:20 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -6.5 F (-21.4 C) Windchill -38.4 F (-39.1 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 12 kts Grid 340 Barometer 692.4 mb (10163. ft) Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html

22 years, 1 month

Pcjr Rim HHD Setups

by nampcjr＠yahoo.com

Anyone out here ever have or currently have a PCjr with the RIM Adapter setup? I have 2 types of modem-slotted SCSI cards, onne being from Rim Electronics, and the other from an unknown maker. I have HardBIOSjr cartridge, the ST-225 HDD's for the Rim Electronics SCSI card, but am unable to get jr to recognize them. Any ideas from someone who used this setup before? Brian Heise --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - Get your photo on the big screen in Times Square

22 years, 1 month

Free stuff, mostly Apple II related

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

http://oldcomputers.net/surplus.html Free stuff! You only pay shipping, UPS or USPS. 1. Model 1010 - Amiga external floppy drive - quantity 2. 2. Apple II external metal 5-1/4 floppy drive - quantity 4. 3. Comodore 207CB electro-mechanical calculator. 4. Rockwell 212P electronic calculator. Free Apple stuff! You only pay shipping, UPS or USPS. 1. Apple III computer - does not work! 2. 630-0400 - Apple Macintosh Display card. No RAM installed, working condition is unkown. 3. A9M0330 - Apple Desktop Bus Keyboard (IIGS) 4. M0110A - Macintosh Extended Keyboard 5. M0487 - Apple Keyboard II (ADB) 6. M2980 - Apple Design Keyboard 7. M3501 - Apple Extended Keyboard II 8. External SCSI CD-ROM - make and condition unknown. The following manuals are free - you pay shipping.. 1. Apple IIGS System Disk Users Guide (v3.0) 2. Apple IIc Interactive Owners Guide 3. Macintosh IIcx Owners Guide 4. Apple IIc Scribe Users Guide 5. Apple II Super Serial Card Users Guide (II,II+,IIe) 6. Imagewriter Users Manual part 1 reference 7. Apple IIc Imagewriter Users Manual 8. Apple IIe Owners Manual 9. Apple IIc Scribe Users Manual (still in plastic wrap) 10. Apple IIc imagewriter Users Guide (still in plastic wrap) 11. Microsoft Works v1.0 - lessons - Macintosh 12. Microaoft Works v1.0 - Using - Macintosh 13. ProDOS Supplement to IIc Owners Manual 14. Appleworks Tutorial (IIe,IIc) 15. Apple II System Disk Users Guide (IIe,IIc,IIc+) 16. Apple Imagewriter Owners Guide (II...,Mac) 17. Apple Monochrome monitor Owners Guide (IIc,IIGS) 18. Apple II 80 column card manual (IIe) 19. Stylewriter's Owners Guide 20. Touch of Applesoft BASIC (IIe,IIc,IIGS) quantity 5 21. Appleworks Refence Manual (IIe,IIc) 22. Appleworks Tutorial 23. Applesoft BASIC Programmers Reference Manual volume 1 (IIe) 24. Apple 3.5 Drive Owners Guide 25. Monitor IIc Users Manual 26. Apple II backup II guide __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/

22 years, 1 month

ID this card: MPPi Ltd

by win_glazer＠cox.net

I have seen the model 2 instructions and they make refference to an archaic OS known as Dos 2.0 The card is not a dongle but provides Hardware encryption on the fly.

22 years, 1 month

follow up on ID this card: MPPi Ltd

by win_glazer＠cox.net

----- Original Message ----- From: Rick To: cctech(a)classiccmp.org Sent: Friday, December 26, 2003 4:53 PM Subject: ID this card: MPPi Ltd Your mystery card is a security device MPPi, Ltd., 2200 Lehigh Ave., Glenview, IL 60025 Phone: 312-998-8401 Google a bit it only took 2 attempts for this one. Device was known as pc-lock, you apparrently have the first model pc lock II is much better put together.

22 years, 1 month

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test-drb December 2003